I have a Soekris 5501 running as router via NAT. My ADSL modem is in
(pseudo) bridge mode, and I use ppp(8)/pppoe(8) to login to my provider.
I also would like to use the device do download torrents with rtorrent.
This works, except that my network performance drops.

So I wrote this line to test http GET performance and run it a few
times

I tried running 'nice 20 rtorrent' but make no remarkable difference.
The machine is also running httpd, named and sshd.
Is it that my platform cannot handle so many connections? Does anyone
have tips on benchmarking? I really lack diagnostic skills

Some other information:

Code:

$ ps
pieter 9642 0.9 6.0 3400 31460 p3 Ss+ 4:11PM 4:02.73 rtorrent

Code:

pf.conf:
set skip on lo
pass
ext_if="tun0"
int_if="vr0"
wlan_if="ral0"
internal_net="10.0.0.1/16"
wlan_net="192.168.0.0/16"
nat on $ext_if from $internal_net to any -> ($ext_if)
nat on $ext_if from $wlan_net to any -> ($ext_if)
rdr on $ext_if proto tcp from any to port 6346 -> 10.0.0.2
rdr on $ext_if proto udp from any to port 6346 -> 10.0.0.2
rdr on $ext_if proto tcp from any to port 6881:6999 -> 10.0.0.2 #bitorrent
block in on ! lo0 proto tcp to port 6000:6010
pass out on $ext_if proto tcp all modulate state flags S/SA
pass out on $ext_if proto { udp, icmp } all modulate state